Todd’s Life

Hi all! So our first mortgage is a 20 year fixed mortgage at 4.35%. Can you believe that? And you thought that the US rates were cheap. We should be moving in next weekend. Not much else is new. Work is work. It is busy. I’ve got 4 projects going right now. It is finally warming up. To be honest though, Santiago winters are not too bad. It sure isn’t Hawaii, but the winters aren’t bad. The past 2 days have been about 80 degrees during the day. I can survive winters here. The only thing that I do not like is poor air quality at times.

Oh and if you want to read a great article about the economy, here it is from Bill Bonner. http://dailyreckoning.com/read-between-the-decimals/

Hi all!  It is finally kind of warming up in Chile.  After 3 weeks of sun and fun in the U.S. it sure is getting old waking up and being cold.  We can’t wait until we move into our new place because it has central heating.  Hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks.  We are waiting for an exact date from the people building the place and for all the mortgage stuff to go through just fine.  It will soon be warm for quite some time. 

And now a great video that I found by Milton Friedman… He sure knew a lot and understood how to deconstruct the silly arguments of socialists and their many lies they use to take away freedoms for their power consumption.  What arrogant folks socialist leaders are.  Enjoy the video here.  (Milton Friedman)

Man, the weeks just keep flying by.  So what has happened this past week.  Well, Karla and I chose a venue for the marriage.  It will be held at the Hotel Interncontinental.  I asked her parents if I could marry her and they said yes and welcome to the family.  She has a pretty cool family, extended family, etc.  They are intelligent, smart, good people and they all seem enamored with me.  This week was spent somewhat recovering from the tonsillitus episode.  I went to work everyday, but didn’t feel a 100% until later in the week.  Right now in Santiago it is supposed to be raining everyday and cold, but they are having freakishly warm weather which is good for me.  I guess every new place that I go, I always seem to bring weird weather.  They expect the warm weather to last until May, then it will turn cold.  Let’s see, what else happened?  Karla and I bought the rings for the wedding the other day.  They are traditional classic gold rings.  We should have them by this Thursday.  So we have the venue, the rings, she has chosen her dress, etc.  So I’d say that everything is on track.  Well that is it for now.  I will write more frequently now.  I know that I haven’t been that good at this, but I will be better.

Well, let me just summarize what has transpired in the last few days.  This tonsilitis thing sure takes a long time to beat.  I was basically at home most of last week.  It leaves you with a splitting headache as well.  I’ve never had a headache that basically lasts for days.  Now I know what migraines feel like kind of.  You just don’t want to move.  Luckily, Karla is very good about taking care of me and she came over and made me dinner most of the evenings.

I also saw my first live soccer match in Chile pitting the 2 bitterest rivals against each other.  Jared would have appreciated the amount of swearing in Spanish that was going on.  I’ve never heard so many chants and cheers with mother in them and other words that can’t be reproduced here.  Basically, the stadium was filled with one set of fans on one side and the other on the other side and we were in the middle, right where it was divided.  I will never forget the father-daughter in front of us flipping off the other fans and they were swearing something in Spanish.  It was loud the whole time.  If you ever get a chance, you really should go to one of these.

Also, last night, I officially asked Karla’s parents for her hand in marriage and they welcomed me into the family.  They have never seen Karla this way.  She has had boyfriends, but for whatever reason, I am something different.  I am sure it is because of the values that I have.  She has the same ones as me.  She is a good woman.  So it looks like the date is June 20.  We have a lot of work to do between now and then and it will be stressful and we all know how I react to stress, but in the end it will be worth it.  I will be with a good woman and she will be with a good man.  Don’t buy tickets just yet.  We need to firm up that date with the venue today or tomorrow and then we’ll let you all know.  You will love Chile when you come down here.

Ok, so it has been a really long time since I have written.  I don’t know why.  I guess you could say because my life is busy and I didn’t write.  I have my first major illness here in Chile.  It is tonsillitis.   Yikes.  I am getting better.  I’ve kind of been out of commission for a few days now.  Other than that, I’m sure that most of you have heard the news, I am going to get married on June 20 here in Chile.  I know that some of you are wondering why, but I’m not.  I’ve met a wonderful, good, kind woman here in Chile.

Poor Karla.  She’s had this cold all weekend, so I’ve been trying to take care of her.  Thank heavens I brought some of that Tylenol stuff down with me.  It sure has helped her a lot.  I think she ended up using all of it.  So on Friday, she came over and watched Last of the Mohicans with me, but she wasn’t feeling too well so she ended up sleeping through most of it.

Then Saturday, she came over and cooked for me.  I picked up my new car yesterday which means I should probably take a picture of it and send it to you all.  It has been so convenient now to get around and to date.  She loves my new car.  She says it is almost as cool and me.  After lunch, we headed out to go to this mall that is dedicated to just sporting stuff.  Chile is a nation that loves the outdoors.  I can’t ever remember seeing or hearing about a mall dedicated to just sports stuff.  Santiago is a huge city.  I took her home early because I had to get up early for the marathon and she was sick with a cold and she needed some good sleep.  She is so dang cute.  She is so in love with me and I am in love with her.

On Sunday, I got up early and caught the subway to the start line of the marathon.  It started a 8 am and was a perfectly sunny, hot day.  I don’t know why they start their marathon so late.  I can only imagine how hot it was when the stragglers ran the race.  It was a very well organized race.  I think there were 22,000 people who ran 42K, 21K, or 10K.  The shirts they gave us were very pretty.  I felt really good in the race until about the 33K when I kind of ran out of steam or I should say that my legs started screaming, but I gutted it out and finished it in 3 hours 51 minutes.  It was nice to be done.  Karla was there at the finish line along with Jeruen.  It was nice of them both to support me.  And it was doubly nice to see Karla at the end.  My legs were tired as they always are after a marathon.  Karla came over and cooked me lunch and massaged my legs a little bit because they needed it.  She really is a dynamite woman.  Then we just relaxed at my house, watched some tv, slept a little bit, and that was the weekend.  I spent most of my time with Karla which is just how I like it.

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t written in a few days.  Time just flies down here.  What with starting work at 9 or so and working until 7 and then getting home around 8 and dating Karla, I don’t seem to have a ton of time in between to do much else.  Plus I’m preparing for the marathon which is this weekend.  So, in all honesty, my life is rather boring and there isn’t much to write about.  About the only new thing that I can think of is that I bought a car, a Toyota Auris Sport which is basically a version of the Matrix down here in Chile.  It is nice.  One interesting fact about Chile is that car loans run between 12% and 25% a year for interest.  That is crazy.  The banks control so much down here.  It almost seems like the system is rigged in their favor, but then again they are making money unlike our loser banks back in the states.  I’ll pick up my car on Friday, then Karla and I will be travelling to Vina del Mar for the day on Saturday and I have the marathon on Sunday in Santiago.  I’m looking forward to finally having wheels as I am sure Karla is as well.  We can easily travel places outside of Santiago and just get around much easier.  Let’s see, what else has happened.  Karla will be moving to a different work location starting next week.  That is sad for both of us, but good for her because I think that her travel schedule will be easier.  It will be shorter because she is closer to town.  It will be weird not seeing her beautiful, smiling, bright face every morning and not being able to go on our afternoon walks during lunch.  But I guess in life there are always changes and you just gotta roll with the punches.  Karla is such a kind, nice woman.  It is amazing to me that we met in Chile.  Sometimes, I gotta slap myself or pinch myself or whatever because I’m actually living and working in a foreign country.  It is still warm here and sunny.  They are predicting the warm weather to last for a few more months.  I still have only experienced one day with a little light rain.  Other than that, it has been just dry and hot for the most part.

Chile played Uruguay the other day in soccer here in Chile.  They got a red card in the first couple of minutes and somehow escaped with 1 point and 0 - 0 tie. 

Sorry all for the lack of blogging, but there really isn’t much to tell.  I will try to be better about my blogging in the future, so thanks for reminding me to blog.

Back to work.  Back to the grind.  That is about all I can say about Monday.  Mondays always are one of the worst days of the week.  The only bright spot of the day was that I got to see Karla today and she was so cute.  We went for a walk during lunch and then found a nice spot on the grass to talk and relax together for about .5 hour.  After work, we road the bus together back into town.  She gets claustrophic around tons of people and the metro.  We went into the metro together and it just stunk to high heaven.  There were so many people.  So I suggested that we just walk the two metro stops to her bus stop and she agreed.  It was nice.  Santiago is so nice at night when it is cool.  She really is a dynamite woman.  I know I keep saying this, but it is nice to be around a woman with such a good heart and mind.

Today was a really quiet day.  I actually did my last long run before the marathon today because I didn’t feel that good yesterday.  My body hurt so bad today after it.  I suppose that I am ready for the marathon.  We’ll find out.  The marathon is run next Sunday and the silly thing about the marathon here is that they don’t begin it until 8 am which means we will finish in the heat of the day.  That is lame.  Hopefully, there will be a cool win.  Anyway, today Karla and I made my favorite casserole together and it was so good, then we just hung around and talked.

Talk about a wasted day.  Because we were up so late on Friday at the dance club, I did not feel good one bit on Saturday.  I was tired the whole day.  Karla went to a 5 hour concert on Saturday with her aunt.  It was a concert with her favorite group AHA and also Rick Astley and Blondie.  A funny thing about Chile is that they are stuck in the 80s musically.  But she just loves the lead singer of AHA.  It is kind of funny.  I guess woman always have their men that they fantasize about.  We did get together for a few hours during the day before the concert, then I road the Metro with her to the concert stadium where she met her aunt.  She had a great time at the concert because she was pretty much in the front row with her aunt.  She took lots of pictures and couldn’t stop talking about Morton, the lead singer of AHA.  I guess that she actually interacted with him in the concert.  She yelled that she wanted to kiss him and he turned to her and said “Me”.  I just enjoyed a quiet time at home.